Classes
Your starting Class in Demon's Souls is not a straitjacket. It determines your initial attribute allocations, your starting Soul Level, and your initial equipment. You can eventually upgrade your stats in such a way that you could use any type of weapon, armor, or magic, but this will be many hours into your first character. Go with a character that has stats and equipment that lean naturally towards what you are interested in playing right from the beginning of the game, and upgrade your stats to support that role. "Soul Level" is your "Experience Level". The higher your Soul Level, the more each stat point costs from the Maiden in Black. "Starting Soul Level" affects how expensive stat upgrades are right off the bat. At 1, the Noble has the lowest initial cost for stat upgrades, while the Thief and Barbarian have the highest, at 9. The character classes: Knight Starting Equipment: *Long Sword, *Mail Breaker(a sort of short stabbing blade), *Kite Shield, *Fluted Armor Basic Info: The Knight lacks in physical stats compared to other fighting classes, but makes up for it somewhat in his comparative mental refinement. He can access both miracles and magic without much work and starts with a versatile equipment set. http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y178/mdonatelli/1.png Priest Starting Equipment: *Mace, *Heater Shield, *Chain Armor, *Talisman of God Basic Info: Uses Miracle magic, has a high defensive power, good damage boost via strength, but won't be able to use certain weapons with any proficiency. http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y178/mdonatelli/2.png Thief Starting Equipment: * Dagger, *Buckler, *Shortbow, *Black leather armor set, *Assassin's Hood Basic Info: The basic rogue. Low attack with light armor, their agility is very high. Dodging and rolling is a breeze with them, as is lining up for backstabs (instant kills) against enemies. The buckler they start out with is small, and they cannot readily use any of the shields that you find frequently in the beginning of the game (Knight's Shield, Heater Shield) without stat upgrades first. Their insanely high luck means you will get plenty of item drops and usually not be at a shortage of herbs. http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y178/mdonatelli/3.png Magician Starting Equipment: *Short Sword, *Leather Shield, *Catalyst of Wood, *Wizard set Basic Info: Main magic class, but lacks the passive MP regeneration item of the Noble class, starts with Veil of Water to reduce fire damage and what I'll call Gout of Flame(a stream of fire), this is among the tougher classes to start with. http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y178/mdonatelli/4.png Temple Knight Starting Equipment: *Halberd, *Mirdan armour, *Heater Shield, *Talisman of God (with Heal miracle). Basic Info: //In effect the temple knight is a knight who has traded a bit of starting equipment in order to use Miracles immediately. The starting halberd is a sweeping area effect weapon which is great outdoors but you'll keep hitting the walls if you use it indoors (try to get hold of a spear or sword for indoors). Don't bother buying new armour early on, just keep your starting armour in good shape and look for big shields.// http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y178/mdonatelli/5.png Soldier Starting Equipment: *Broadsword, *Short Spear, *Iron Shield, *plate Armor. Basic Info: The basic balanced class, balanced stats with highs in physical stats at expense of intellect, those who want an easier time at the game might consider this class. http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y178/mdonatelli/6.png Wanderer Starting Equipment: *Falchion(wide arc attacks for a blade), *Dagger, *Wooden Shield, *Leather Armor(Chest Leather) *Hard Leather Boots(Chain set) Basic Info: A hybrid of the Thief class, very high Agility provides a better offense, but you don't have ready access to magic. http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y178/mdonatelli/7.png Barbarian Starting Equipment: *2 Clubs(wooden), *Wooden Shield, *naked except for sandals and 'short shorts' Basic Info: Very high starting strength and hit points, but poor equipment. Ideal if you plan on playing a brute force character, possibly emphasizing large two handed weapons. http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y178/mdonatelli/8.png Royal Starting Equipment: *Catalyst of Silver, *Rapier, *Buckler, *Incense Ring(enables passive MP regeneration), *Wizard set Basic Info: Imagine a Thief hybrid, but with low luck and instead having the ability to bomb the hell out of enemies with offensive magic(Soul Arrow by default), extremely easy class to play in large areas but you'll need proficiency to survive getting mobbed in tight spaces. http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y178/mdonatelli/9.png Hunter Starting Equipment: *Longbow, *Battle Axe (for chopping wood?), *Leather Shield, *Leather Armor Basic Info: Small boosts to Luck and most stats make this a fairly balanced class overall, you can melee or use the bow with proficiency(bows can also be aimed first person, and have some zoom ability), consider this as an alternative class to the soldier if you enjoy ranged classes. http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y178/mdonatelli/10.png